Life Without Mainstreet
Are our main cities becoming too big for a single civic promenade, and is the multicellular world of mall dominance just the way things are developing?
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Managed isolation cleaners should be paid a living wage
Managed isolation facility cleaners, who the country desperately relies on, are struggling to survive on low wages while performing an absolutely vital role.
Escape Velocity
In this series so far I’ve examined three of the four terms in the Kaya Identity, population, economic intensity, and energy intensity. It […]
Reasons to abandon NZ’s Five-Eyed Folly
Wayne Brown’s recent suggestion “Is it time to sell our seat on FiveEyes?” is from someone well placed by experience to form an educated opinion. “Trade sanctions of the type Australia is facing are a weapon used by both USA and China. So let’s have a debate on whether we need Five Eyes, or whether it’s time for us to trade on independently.”
The fascinating story about when some redditors took on Wall Street
The world has been watching, mostly with amusement, as some redditors have brought a Wall Street merchant bank to its knees, by buying stocks in a company, GameStop who has seen better days and whose business model is antiquated.
Is New Zealand’s The Best Little Economy In The World?
New Zealand is the best-managed country in the world. And currently has one of the best economies.
Both sides reporting in the time of Trump
You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are. But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.
BluffGeld
The way that the smelter operates is the exact equivalent of some thuggish barbarians with big swords extracting tribute for not burning, raping and pillaging. In other words Danegeld or any other form of protection racket exactly as No Right Turn points out. I’ll repeat his succinct post here. Meantime how can I encourage the wasteful fools at Meridian (and Contact) to start thinking about their paying customers rather than barbarian freeloaders
Without the handbrake what should this Government do?
Welcome to 2021. This is the year for the Labour Government to be brave. What should it seek to achieve this year?
Words of Outrage or Outrageous Action?
Do you reward rage with rage or do you ignore it and walk away quietly?
Beefing up the border – expensive and essential
From a few days ago (it seems like an eternity), RNZ reported “Govt to pump almost $3 billion into its Covid-19 response after report identified failings”. There were several points I’d make about the border controls and generally with our border and the long slow years in constraining this pandemic. But the Sydney outbreak and the UK Xmas Grinch appear to be making them for me already.
The Malthusian Spectre
Population has always been a critical driver of events and prior to the Industrial Revolution we lived in a zero sum world, with […]
Must New Zealand Pay Back All This Public Debt?
Without much fanfare, Minister Robertson has used 2020’s crisis to bury the historic scourge of monetarism and within it the excuses of the governments that used it as a pretext to sell off our key government income generators.
Shock horror, trickle down does not work
In yet another study academics at the London School of Economics have concluded that trickle down leads to higher income inequality but do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment.
The Government’s finances are in very good shape
The Government’s finances are in remarkably good shape. Who would have predicted that dealing properly with a global pandemic would have had better results for the economy than timidly dealing with it and trying to ensure that economic activity continued? But by international levels our Government debt is already low and maybe now is the time to spend on vital areas such as poverty, climate change and the housing crisis.
Brexit revisited
With Brexit looming there is talk of unfinished customs software and the possibility of chaos around ports, the UK’s food supply being compromised, and potential skirmishes with France at fishing spots. And Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are refusing to talk to Boris Johnson. Hang on England, this is going to get wild.
How can NZ incomes be lifted to match housing costs?
Not a vague let’s raise wages and benefits explanation, but an in-depth, number crunching, evidence-driven explanation. Where is it?
Energy’s Iron Triangle.
For those who don’t trawl through all the comments; a little personal background. I’ve been fortunate enough to have just finished up a […]
The human Pangaea
Humans have created the most recent virtual super-continent. At least as far as species movement has been concerned world wide. We’ve picked up species from around the world and transplanted them almost everywhere else – including microbiological. Pandemics will be the inevitable result. Could be amphibians dying off. It could be us. Perhaps it is time to have an intelligent discussion about the risks.
Tranquillum
Don’t expect a jellyfish to grow a spine, they just bob along on the current and keep moving, gently, slowly, kindly.
“Beyond Jacinda” – Colin James and Cr Tamatha Paul
Colin James and Councillor Tamatha Paul will discuss Colin’s paper “Beyond Jacinda” on Monday 7 December at 5:30pm at Baptist Church, 46-48 Boulcott Street Wellington. It will also be shown on Zoom and available on YouTube. Registration links below. All Welcome.
National’s gonna National
On two issues, pill testing at music festivals and tax changes to address the housing crisis, National yesterday indicated that it will do what conservative parties do and oppose any meaningful change.
The Speech From The Throne
I’m sure one needs a particular depth of political nerdiness to give a flying fig about such things, but since I am one of those, these are my highlights from the speech from the throne to Parliament this week.
Maiden Speech – Ibrahim Omer take a bow
Ibrahim Omer, refugee, trade unionist, and living wage advocate gave his maiden speech today in Parliament. If you want to watch an outstanding speech and shed a tear or two watch this.
Comrade David signals radical rewrite of Act’s living wage policy
Comrade David Seymour has signalled that Act may argue for a minimum wage of $50 per hour.
Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Giving migrant workers access to insufficient welfare is a financial coercion tool of right wing and centrist economics.
No Right Turn: the obvious question
One in four property speculators aren’t paying the bright-line tax.
Time’s up Labour
It’s not possible to resolve New Zealand’s housing and poverty crises from within a neoliberal frame. Change is going to have to be driven from outside of parliament.
South Australia’s new Covid strain
During a week in which two Covid vaccines have been announced there is disturbing news coming out of Australia where a new more potent strain of the virus has appeared in South Australia.
Resiliency politics
With news of more global stressors next year, the stories we tell right now are critical to how we build resiliency. Let’s make sure they are good ones.
C’mon Grant
This government must demonstrate that it has the ability to lead the New Zealand economy where it has stated it wants it to go. It does not want more headlines like the average house in Auckland now being priced at $1 million.
They Are Not Morons
Donald Trump will be back for another go at the Presidency in 2024. Progressives should underestimate the possibility of his winning. Unless the remaining centre-left generates strategies that are executed so well that people feel the difference good politics makes, the elements of populism arising again will stay ready like the elements of a bomb.
Powerdown part two
Christchurch transition engineer Susan Krumdieck lays out the realities of the various crises we are facing, and why green tech won’t save us. What can we do instead?
Capitalism’s end game
In Aotearoa New Zealand we are facing a new crisis. Not Covid, although the recent case of community spread is deeply concerning. The crisis is the value of houses.
COVID19 Vaccine and New Zealand’s K-Shaped Recovery
IF the discovery of a potential Covid vaccine looks like a new dawn, let’s not forget that this is the accelerating point of the K-shaped recovery New Zealand have been dreading. Our already rich are on the line heading upwards. They are getting richer because of a range of our Government policies.
A tsunami of wing clipped kiwi?
The rush back home has definitely been happening and appears to mainly be constrained at present by the limits on quarantine facilities. It has already helped to mitigate the drops in immigration and probably will in the future. Nowhere near as economically important and productive as our exports. But useful for reducing unemployment for those not exposed to the export economy.